Countdown to End-of-Support for Windows XP begins

On 8 April 2014, Microsoft will end support for its decade-old Windows XP. This means, you will no longer receive security updates, fixes or online technical support for PCs still running Windows XP SP3 and Office 2003. The security and privacy implications of this event could have significant impact on your business, so if you're running either of these products you should plan to take action soon.

Potential Business Implications:

Without critical security updates, your PC may become vulnerable to harmful viruses, spyware and other malicious software which can steal or damage your business dataand information.

When problems arise, online and phone-based technical support will unfortunately no longer be available to you or your IT partner, leaving you on your own to deal with the problem.

The risks of system failure and business disruption could increase because of the end of support, lack of supported software, and the increasing age of hardware running Windows XP.

Many software and hardware vendors will no longer support products that are running on Windows XP as they are unable to get the Windows XP and Office 2003 updates created to fix issues.

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What People Are Saying

Organisations that continue to retain a Windows XP environment are not only leaving themselves exposed to security risks and support challenges but are also wasting budget that would be better used in modernising their IT investments.

The increasing new technology in mobile computing and the sophistication of network security attacks will test the performance of XP when the support ceases. Enterprises need to consider the functional costs and the vulnerability of their PCs if they continue with the existing OS.

Allan Tong, Director, Asia Pacific, Frost & Sullivan

Windows XP has been a major platform that both consumers and business alike have depended on for many, many years now. And yet with the termination of extended support for XP looming ahead, it is important that preparations be made to migrate to newer versions of the OS in order to make sure that users can continue to rely on their systems.